Just A Little Stitchin': A to Z Challenge

Showing posts with label A to Z Challenge. Show all posts

Monday, May 4, 2015

A to Z Reflections

It's been a few days since the A to Z challenge ended and I wanted to write my reflections on the challenge in general.

Overall, I really had a great time! I love having a completed cross stitch piece at the end of the challenge and I'm already planning on doing this again next year! I also have a nifty little badge to show off on my blog. Yay!

Things I have learned include:

1. If I stick with doing another alphabet, I'm going to try to keep to one figure/character per letter. The OUAT Alphabet was great, I love it, but all the double characters got a bit overwhelming some days.

2. I plan on starting the stitching a little earlier than I did this year. Life happens, especially with a husband and two young children, and it would be nice to have a little more breathing room than I did when I did the challenge this year with completing the stitching every day. The blogging daily was never an issue for me, I do that anyway. It was the stitching that proved the most difficult challenge!

3. I need to do a better job of visiting other blogs (again, something that would benefit by me getting a little bit ahead with the stitching), but I had some difficulty with doing that this time partially because of the time, but also because I would lose track of where I stopped surfing when blogs were removed from the list and I also wanted to visit blogs that piqued my interest by the topic in general first. While everyone was supposed to indicate what type of blog they have on the linky list on the A to Z Blogging Site, the majority really didn't. I'd love to see that be a required field for the linky list next year. It would make it easier to hit the blogs I really want to see among the several hundred first.

I think that's about it at this point. I've started bookmarking patterns for possible use next year, and I'm already well into my next challenge. We'll see what happens next year!

If you've missed my previous posts in the A to Z Challenge, feel free to check them out at:

Until next year!
~Katy

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Z is for...

I did it! It's here! The end of the journey! Today we meet the last character in our alphabet, Zelena, also known as the Wicked Witch of the West!

Zelena is the older half sister of Regina and was the first of the sisters to study under Rumplestiltskin. She originally wasn't green - she turned that was out of jealousy. She has a fondness for turning people into flying monkeys (Aurora can attest to that), and we thought she was long gone. Apparently we were wrong. I'm not going to go into too much more detail because it's all about the current season and part of it makes me want to yell at the television!

With the completion of Zelena, I have finished the entire sampler! Yay!!

Once Upon A Time Character Alphabet Sampler by Fangirl Stitches

Started: 3/30/15

Finished: 4/29/15

Stitched on 32-ct. Jobelan in Witches Brew from Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie

I've had a ton of fun with this challenge and I can't wait until next year's!

If you've missed my previous posts in the A to Z Challenge, feel free to check them out at:

Until next time!
~Katy

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Y is for...

Y is our last stretch for the alphabet, but I loved this one because of the cute little Enchanted Forest version! Y is being represented by Jiminy Cricket, known as Archie Hopper in Storybrooke!

Jiminy has a great backstory. He wasn't always a cricket - he was raised by immoral parents who got him to steal from a young age but he never liked it. After helping Rumplestiltskin, he asks for a way to escape from his parents as a reward. Rumple gives him a potion that is accidentally taken by a nice couple and turns them into puppets. Turns out, those were the parents of young Gepetto. In an effort to make up for his mistake, he begs for help from the Blue Fairy, who can't reverse the spell but does turn him into a cricket so he can escape his parents and he becomes the lifelong friend of Gepetto as a result.

In Storybrooke, Archie is the local psychiatrist who tries to help Henry with his "delusion" about the truth about Storybrooke before the curse is broken. He also owns the dalmatian, Pongo - I keep waiting for Perdita to show up and Archie to get a love story of his own!

If you've missed my previous posts in the A to Z Challenge, feel free to check them out at:

Until next time!
~Katy

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

X is for...

X is another letter that we have to stretch a bit for since there are no characters with an X first or last name, but we do have one with an X as a last letter! Meet Felix!

Felix is a main character in the Peter Pan storyline. He is Peter Pan's right hand man (or Lost Boy, really), and he leads the Lost Boys in Pan's search for the heart of the truest believer. Not exactly a good boy at all!

If you've missed my previous posts in the A to Z Challenge, feel free to check them out at:

Until next time!
~Katy

Monday, April 27, 2015

W is for...

We've made it to the last week of the challenge! Only four more letters to go! I'm looking forward to finishing this piece, I've had a lot of fun working on it!

Today for W, we get to meet Snow White, known as Mary Margaret Blanchard.

She is the wife of Prince Charming, the mother of Emma Swan and the grandmother of Henry Mills. Before they remember who they are, she is a mild mannered school teacher who takes Henry under her wing and gives him a book of fairy tales that ends up starting this entire journey for everyone.

Now, Snow is supposed to be one of the heroes of the show. A paragon of good, a warrior for truth and justice, but she really is the villain in my opinion. She shows more than once that she can be selfish, self centered, immoral and ruthless. She spends time as a thief (though not an honorable one like Robin Hood), she condemns the soul of another unborn child for the sake of her own and justified it because the child was the offspring of someone "evil", she has an affair with David before they have their memories back and he was married to someone else, she puts the people of Storybrooke under a second curse, and more. Her heart has darkness in it (we actually get to see it at one point when her heart is pulled out of her chest). Her focus is not on the greater good, but on what is best for her and her immediate family. Much of the suffering of the other characters, including the villains, can be tied back to choices and actions that Snow White made.

Yes, she does have some redeeming qualities, but honestly, not enough for me. Is it obvious yet that I'm not fond of her at all? But again, this is my opinion. Others will have very different viewpoints!

If you've missed my previous posts in the A to Z Challenge, feel free to check them out at:

Until next time!
~Katy

Saturday, April 25, 2015

V is for...

Today we meet Victor Frankenstein, known in Storybrooke as Dr. Whale.

Victor is not from the Enchanted Forest like so many others are. He is from The Land Without Color and his entire backstory is shown in black and white, which I thought was very well done. He does have a business relationship with Rumplestiltskin though (he's another character that gets around), and uses a magic heart to bring his brother (aka Frankenstein's Monster) back to life. In Storybrooke, he is a womanizing doctor at the hospital that takes care of Prince Charming when he's in a coma and has a brief fling with Snow White before they all regained their memories.

If you've missed my previous posts in the A to Z Challenge, feel free to check them out at:

Until next time!
~Katy

Friday, April 24, 2015

U is for...

Today we get to meet the Sea Witch, Ursula!

Regina did impersonate Ursula once to Ariel, but the real Ursula is much cooler. She is is one of the Queens of Darkness, along with Maleficent and Cruella DeVil, that join up with Rumplestiltskin in New York after he was banished from Storybrooke earlier this season. I really liked her backstory. She wasn't always an evil half-octopus. She started life as a mermaid, the daughter of Poseidon, and she had a beautiful singing voice that gets stolen by Captain Hook at Poseidon's request (Hook gets around!). In revenge against her father, shes uses his trident to make her even more powerful than him and turns evil.

She was so much fun to stitch. I loved working on her tentacles and her crazy hair. I also switched out the color called for with her earrings and necklace to make them closer to the costume from the show. I love how she turned out!

If you've missed my previous posts in the A to Z Challenge, feel free to check them out at:

Until next time!
~Katy

Thursday, April 23, 2015

T is for...

Today we meet Disney's most well known fairy, Tinkerbell!

Tinkerbell's story, though, is not as cheerful in the show as you'd think. She works for the Blue Fairy, like all fairies in the show do. She saves the Evil Queen before she's fully evil from committing suicide one night and she uses some of her pixie dust to follow the path with Regina to her true love, the man with the lion tattoo (that we later discover is Robin Hood), but Regina doesn't go to meet him at the tavern they found him at. She got in trouble with the Blue Fairy and ended up losing her wings. She does end up redeeming herself later, though, and earns her wings back eventually! It's kind of a long story how that happens with lots of spoilers, so follow the link or watch the show to learn more!

Stitching wise, this piece was both easy and hard at the same time. Only being one character to stitch made it easy, but the massive amounts of DMC Light Effects in the wings, collar, shoes and T was not easy! I did add the little bead to the end of her wand. It needed a little bling!

If you've missed my previous posts in the A to Z Challenge, feel free to check them out at:

Until next time!
~Katy

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

S is for...

Today we meet Sidney Glass, the Storybrooke counterpart of the Genie in the Lamp who becomes the Magic Mirror.

Poor Sidney. He is one of the Evil Queen's minions, to be sure. He originally met her in the Enchanted Forest, where he fell in love with her, which the Queen used to her advantage by trapping him in her Magic Mirror. In Storybrooke, she uses him as the editor of the local paper and during a brief stint as the sheriff before magic returned and he was forced into the mirror again. When that happened, he turned on the Queen and betrayed her to help the Snow Queen.

If you've missed my previous posts in the A to Z Challenge, feel free to check them out at:

Until next time!
~Katy

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

R is for...

Today we meet Red Riding Hood, who is known as wild child Ruby in Storybrooke.

Red has a fantastic back story that is very different from your typical wolf eating your grandmother story we're all familiar with. I don't want to give too much away, but it was definitely a twist that both makes perfect sense and that I never saw coming. She is also a good friend of Snow White's in the Enchanted Forest and one of Snow's few girlfriends in Storybrooke.

I really would love if they did more with her character - she has fantastic potential but the actress that plays Red has been working on other shows, so like our Mad Hatter, she's somewhat faded into the background.

If you've missed my previous posts in the A to Z Challenge, feel free to check them out at:

Until next time!
~Katy

Monday, April 20, 2015

Q is for...

Today we get to meet my favorite character of the series, the Evil Queen, the caster of the Evil Curse, also known as Regina Mills, the mayor of Storybrooke!

There is so much I could say about Regina, but I'll sum it up with this: To me, she represents true humanity. Someone that is inherently good, but due to life and circumstances gets off that path and does things she eventually regrets but wants to redeem herself. In my opinion, she's the true hero of the show, and I am rooting every day for her to get the happy ending she deserves!

On a stitching note, I did add some bling to the Queen with the necklace and earrings - her costumes in the show are absolutely stunning and she needed her jewels!

If you've missed my previous posts in the A to Z Challenge, feel free to check them out at:

Until next time!
~Katy

Saturday, April 18, 2015

P is for...

Today we meet Peter Pan, formerly known as the Pied Piper or Malcolm, Rumplestiltskin's deadbeat father.

Without going into too much detail, he was Malcolm before he was Peter Pan. And Peter Pan is anything but a good guy in this show. I'll just leave it at that.

If you've missed my previous posts in the A to Z Challenge, feel free to check them out at:

Until next time!
~Katy

Friday, April 17, 2015

O is for...

I will admit, this one is a stretch. There are no major characters with first or last names starting with O on the show, so we're going to have O represented by the person who has the most O's in their name! Meet August Booth, aka Pinocchio!

August was Emma's protector/foster brother when she was an infant and he was a little boy and both were sent to our world to escape the curse. He was supposed to help make sure she knew who she was, but August lost his path for awhile. The show does an interesting twist on his whole being made of wood backstory that I liked a lot!

As a reward for his deeds (that I won't go into in detail because that's a lot of spoilers!), the Blue Fairy does turn him back into a boy so he can experience the life with his father, Gepetto, that he missed growing up.

I will say one of my favorite parts about Pinocchio is that he's in a more traditional Italian version of the costume. I have a Christmas ornament I got from Rome that has Pinocchio in the same green, cream and red, they're all over the place there!

If you've missed my previous posts in the A to Z Challenge, feel free to check them out at:

Until next time!
~Katy

Thursday, April 16, 2015

N is for...

Today we get to meet Neal Cassidy.

In the Enchanted Forest, Neal was known as Baelfire and he is the son of Rumplestiltskin. Rumple became the Dark One when Bae was just a boy, and he hated it. He tried desperately to help bring his father back from the dark side and was lost to our world as a boy. He grew up alone, as Neal, and met Emma when they were both young adults (late teens/early twenties). They had a very Bonnie and Clyde type relationship living a life of crime, but they did love each other, even if Neal let Emma take the fall and go to jail for a robbery.

He did spend some time in Neverland as a boy after being kidnapped from the Darling House by Peter Pan, and he met Hook there, where Hook was like a foster father to him.

Neal is Henry Mills' biological father, though he didn't know Henry existed, and he finally gets to meet Henry when the family is reunited. I won't say anything else because it will give away the story!

If you've missed my previous posts in the A to Z Challenge, feel free to check them out at:

Until next time!
~Katy

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

M is for...

Today we meet young Henry Mills!

Better known as the Truest Believer, Henry figures out the entire town is under a curse because of a storybook that his teacher, Ms. Blanchard (we'll meet her later) gave him when he seemed depressed. He is the one that got Emma to come to Storybrooke and was instrumental in breaking the initial curse over the town.

Now, Henry's family tree is, in my opinion, the most interesting and the most convoluted! I often hear "I am my own Grandpa" in my head when I think about it!

He is the biological son of Emma Swan and Neal Cassidy (you'll see him soon) who was given up for adoption. On the maternal side, this makes Snow White and Prince Charming his grandparents and the Evil Queen his step-great-grandmother.

On the paternal side, Neal is the son of Rumplestiltskin (again, more on that soon), which makes Rumplestiltskin his grandfather, Belle his step-grandmother, Rumple's first wife Milah as his grandmother and Captain Hook his step-grandfather. Oh, and did I mention that Rumplestiltskin's father is also Peter Pan? So Peter Pan is his great-grandfather.

With me so far? Because we're not done.

The Evil Queen, though, is also known as Regina Mills - Henry's adoptive mother. So she's both his adoptive mother and, technically, his step-great-grandmother. That also means he is technically Snow White's step-brother and Emma's step-uncle. And therefore his own step-great-uncle (not quite as catchy as his own grandpa, but close!)

Cora, the Queen of Hearts we met earlier, is his adoptive grandmother, and the Wicked Witch of the West is his adoptive aunt (half-aunt if you want to get technical).

And if Emma and Hook end up ever getting married, Hook would be both his step-father and his step-grandfather.

Familial relationships in this show are VERY confusing. Henry, I think, epitomizes that better than anyone else, and I'm sure I'm missing a link or two in there somewhere!

I just have to say it was a joy to get to stitch a single figure, and a smaller one at that since he is a boy. It was a nice break for today!

If you've missed my previous posts in the A to Z Challenge, feel free to check them out at:

Until next time!
~Katy

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

L is for...

L is for Leroy, better known as Grumpy the Dwarf!

I really liked Grumpy's backstory. Without giving away too much, we find out that dwarfs are hatched, not born, and they get their names when they're given their axes to go work in the mines. Grumpy's original name was Dreamy, but after having his heart broken by his fairy love (thanks, Blue Fairy), his name changes to Grumpy. He's a faithful friend of Snow White and Prince Charming's in Storybrooke, despite being the town drunk at first, and is the de facto leader of the Seven Dwarfs in the show.

If you've missed my previous posts in the A to Z Challenge, feel free to check them out at:

Until next time!
~Katy

Monday, April 13, 2015

K is for...

K is for Killian Jones, Once Upon A Time's (really attractive) version of Captain Hook!

Killian was a naval officer who got trapped in Neverland by Peter Pan and turned pirate. Once he escaped Neverland, he met and fell in love with a woman named Milah, who was Rumplestiltskin's first wife before he turned evil. After Rumple became The Dark One, he went after Hook for revenge, took his hand and because of his appearance earned the nickname Crocodile. Even now with both of them in Storybrooke, they are far from friends.

Killian is also the "True Love" of Emma Swan. Now, I adore Hook as a character, he's got some fantastic witty lines, but since I'm not a huge fan of Emma, I can't say I love this pairing. But I certainly don't mind the eye candy he provides, along the with awesome accent!

If you've missed my previous posts in the A to Z Challenge, feel free to check them out at:

Until next time!
~Katy

Saturday, April 11, 2015

J is for...

Today we get to meet Jefferson, who is also known as The Mad Hatter.

Jefferson is unique in that he remembers everything when he is brought over during the First Curse, unlike nearly everyone else. His hat is magical in that it can open portals to all of the different realms (Enchanted Forest, Wonderland, etc.), but when its brought to Storybrooke, it loses it's power. It drives him a wee bit mad as he tries to figure out a way to make it work again, which leads him to kidnap Emma at one point. He also usually wears high necked coverings to hide the scar from where the Queen of Hearts cut off his head.

He was really a great character but he faded after everyone regained their memories and he was reunited with his daughter. I wish he would come back, but the actor that plays him (Sebastian Stan) is too busy making little, unheard of movies like, you know, Captain America and Winter Soldier.

If you've missed my previous posts in the A to Z Challenge, feel free to check them out at:

Until next time!
~Katy

Friday, April 10, 2015

I is for...

Today we meet Ingrid, also known as the Snow Queen, aunt to Anna and Elsa (of Frozen fame), former foster parent to Emma Swan, and ice cream shop owner in Storybrooke. Ingrid was a primary antagonist for the first half of this year's season during the Frozen storyline and has since passed on, but considering her role in Emma's past, I won't be surprised if we hear more about her again sometime!

I have to tell you, this challenge is tough! I'm loving stitching these characters every day, but the visiting blogs and responding to posts is definitely falling by the way side! I'm going to try to get better, I promise!

If you've missed my previous posts in the A to Z Challenge, feel free to check them out at:

Until next time!
~Katy